Lola – Seattle

We were looking to fuel up on brunch places before hitting Pikes Place Market in Seattle, and Lola’s seems to be highly rated on Yelp.  Located in the Hotel Andra, off the right of the lobby, the restaurant was bustling when we got there and had to wait about 30 minutes before our table was ready. Unbeknownst to us before we sat down, Lola is also a Tom Douglas restaurant, which is located across the street from the Dahlia bakery, which supplies Lola and Palace Kitchen with baked good.  Like Palace Kitchen, Lola provides elevated rustic food.  Theresa went with the eggs benedict, and on the suggestion of the waiter, I chose the house made gravalax, since I am a fan of smoked/cured salmon. The house made to order doughnuts were also mentioned often on Yelp, so we decided to get an order of that as well.

Eggs Benedict

Lola’s Eggs Benedict came with small whole fried potatoes that were partially smashed, then deep fried with a sprinkling of salt and seasonings. Normally, I would chalk this up to gimmicky presentation to match the “elevated rustic” theme, but the potatoes were actually quite tasty in their own right, with the right degree of exterior crispness. The eggs had the proper “runniness” to them and the ham had a texture more like tenderloin and far less salt than a cured meat.

Lola’s Gravalax

 The gravalax came with dry rye toast, chive cream cheese, capers, and sliced red onion.  While tasty and well prepared, it did not stand out among the other cured salmon products I have had.

Fresh made doughnuts accompanied by homemade blueberry jam and vanilla marscapone cheese

The doughnuts were a bit of a disappointment, and perhaps caused by raised expectations based on the Yelp reviews. The bite size doughnuts reminded me a bit of New Orleans beignets, but on a smaller scale and topped with granulated rather than powdered sugar.  The blueberry jam was actually the best thing on the plate, but I say that because it did stick out as something differentiated. The jam was not overly sweet (like the sugar bomb jams they sell in supermarkets), and had just the right consistency. I would buy a jar of it to spread on toast or mix in with my plain yogurt in the mornings. Yeah, it was that good.

Verdict:
Similar to Palace Kitchen, we were satisfied with our meal and glad we sampled it. While nothing stood out as being very differentiated or extremely noteworthy (except maybe the blueberry jam), the food was well prepared and was better than eating at an overpriced hotel restaurant or greasy spoon for brunch.